Recap – PACT Summer School 2017
„Primary Cells for Tissue Engineering“
Have you ever isolated stem cells from human fat tissue or the amniotic membrane? Both are human waste materials and are just two topics of this year’s PACT Summer School program. It focused on preparation and propagation of primary cells for tissue engineering purposes, which will lead to applications that hold the potential to bring human and animal therapies from the lab to the clinic.
5 teams of excellent young scientists prepared a challenging program: In addition to exceptional presentations on the scientific background of cellular development, differentiation and functionality of the envisaged tissue in the body, the appropriate methods and techniques were demonstrated and could be applied in the hands-on courses:
Susanne Wolbank and Eleni Priglinger together with Carolin Steffenhagen, Karin Strohmeier, Julia Maier and Christoph Wurzer isolated stem cells from human adipose tissue.
Asmita Banerjee and Adelheid Weidinger prepared stem cells from the human amniotic membrane and analyzed their mitochondrial activity.
Sylvia Nürnberger and Marian Fürsatz worked on 3D -Pellet culture and biomaterial seeding with cartilage cells.
Wolfgang Holnthoner and Christoph Kaun prepared human endothelial cells from the umbilical cord, performed Matrigel assays and analyzed them by flow cytometry.
Philipp Heher and Janine Tomasch demonstrated the induction of mechanical stimulation of muscle cells-hydrogel constructs.
They all made the program an extraordinary example for perfect transfer of knowledge spanning the broad spectrum from basic science and clinical background to practical skills in the lab.
22 enthusiastic participants from 13 academic institutions of 5 European countries turned out to be hard workers and always followed the lectures and instructions in the lab with dedication. Although the program was rather dense and challenging, they all kept their level of attention until the end of the week and contributed actively to the hands-on sessions.
Despite this dense schedule, the syllabus left enough time for discussions and networking during and between the sessions and at the social events: we had a wonderful dinner at a Viennese Heurigen and had a closing party at the end of our last day with cocktails, cake and cookies!
We would like to thank the teaching teams and all participants for having made this week such a special event!
Here are some of the many positive responses:
“Very valuable experience”
“The course was perfectly organized!”
“Enjoyed it a lot to be a part of it and would like to come back next year”
“This was the best summer school I ever attended and I’m looking forward to coming here again soon, hopefully next year!”
“All instructors were awesome and really at the top of their game!”
“Great topics, great organization … really, really fun and perfect week!”
